


The Red Huntress' Origin

by TheOnlyWife



Category: Danny Phantom
Genre: Alternate Origin Story, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Eventual Romance, F/M, Gray Ghost
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-08
Updated: 2020-05-17
Packaged: 2021-03-03 00:13:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,466
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24065620
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheOnlyWife/pseuds/TheOnlyWife
Summary: Valerie has her life ruined for the last time by that ghost boy. She's fed up and angry. But with no sponser, she'll have to make her own weapons. It isn't the greatest idea to go rummaging through the trash heaps of Elmerton, but it'll do.
Relationships: Danny Fenton & Tucker Foley & Sam Manson, Danny Fenton/Valerie Gray, Valerie Gray & Damon Gray
Comments: 10
Kudos: 17





	1. The Beginning

“I’m fired...aren’t I?” Valerie’s dad asked, not hopeful of the response considering Valerie, her dad, his boss, and several guards were trapped in the glowing green net that was meant to stop anything. Except that “pasty faced ghost boy” and his dog apparently.

“You’re more than fired. You’re ruined.”

* * *

Forced to move out of the nice town they lived in, since her dad lost his very well-paying job, and move instead into Elmerton, the not-so-nice town, it looked hopeless for her popularity status at school. Not like that was her top priority right now, but it was like adding insult to injury. And it hurt. Valerie thought it couldn’t get any worse.

Then it did get worse. She was selling everything she had in a yard sale when Fenton and his loser friends came up to her house, offering to help. Or at least Foley did. Already news of her popularity’s demise had dropped down to the bottom of the social grape vine. And she told him as much. Harsh, but Valerie wasn’t in the mood to deal with them. Manson even said she wasn’t interested in helping her outright.

Then, Fenton rushed off suddenly with a “I’m gonna have to pass too”. Like she wasn’t good enough for his pity. Always a weird one, that guy. All of them followed him out into the street and watched him zoom off on his scooter. Realizing she didn’t really care about that dork though, she turned to give a snarky retort to Manson, since she made her opinion of Valerie clear when the others offered to help and she openly admitted she wasn’t going to.

Then the literal ground beneath their feet split open and unleashed an enormous green dog with a spiked collar. The same dog from the lab, she realized. 

Instinctively, the three of them ran as fast as they could as a dresser - her dresser - was violently thrown onto the sidewalk. The drawers were shoved open and her clothes were tossed onto the street as a bright red car splashed a dirty puddle all over them, probably ruining them forever. 

Just seeing that made her furious. That ghost boy had once again ruined her life. She had half a mind to tell him off. And seeing as he was here, smiling happily with the dog, now tiny, by his feet, she was going to.

She stormed over to him, and her fists shook angrily by her side when she spoke. “Whatever you are, get out of here! You and your stupid dog have done enough!” Her head trembled slightly as she tried to contain the pure rage seeping through her mind.

But before she could continue, the dog latched onto Phantom’s leg and pulled him down the sidewalk. Looked like it hurt too, the dog’s teeth were sharp, she knew. That made her frown sympathetically, but only for a second.

A faint “Come on! Not again!” was heard as the three of them hurried after the ghost, just in time to watch the dog lead Phantom into her moving van, the door slamming behind them. The next five seconds were even more catastrophic. A slew of pathetic and pleading “Nice boy!” and “Down boy!” were heard as the van was dented sharply from every which way.

She didn’t see Phantom and his dog fly out of the van and go wherever they go when they’re not destroying her things, but she assumed they left considering the ungodly sound of property being wrecked stopped.

“What’s going on here?” Her dad said, rushing from inside to unlatch and open the van door. He had apparently come out to see what the noise was all about.

The door swung upwards and the sight of the inside of the van filled her with rage. The neatly packed cargo was now smoking piles of what once was everything they still had. Dented lamps, shattered mirrors, crushed boxes, and barely spared appliances were all leaning against each other, holding on by a thread.

“I don’t know.” She said, angry as all hell. “But I’m gonna find out.”

* * *

The next day was even worse. She didn’t exactly expect a warm welcome from the A-Listers but she had hoped that her friends would understand what she was going through.

She heard Paulina in the distance. “Oh my gosh wait till you see what I’m wearing to the concert. I’m gonna look better than ever!”

As she got closer she heard Dash speak even louder. “Man I’ve been waiting weeks for this. Dumpty Humpty rocks!” She heard him mimic a guitar poorly, but Kwan decided to interrupt. Knowing Dash, he would do the entire song unless someone stopped him.

“Hey Val, we’re down for the concert, right?” Kwan said enthusiastically as Valerie walked up to their usual table, paper bag lunch in hand.

“Sorry guys, I had to sell my ticket online to help pay for the moving truck. Things are…” She held up her lunch bag to show them “...kinda tight now, y’know?”

Unsurprisingly they all responded to her rhetorical question. Dash simply said “No”, Paulina said “Nuh uh” and Kwan said “Not really”. She didn’t even react to their blatant rudeness and just sat down at the end of the table. But she was startled out of her lunch when Dash slammed his hand on the table in front of her. “And speaking of tight…” His eyes gestured over to the loser trio: Manson, Fenton, and Foley. Fenton and Foley were scarfing down food with their hands and Manson just looked disappointed at the three of them, head in her hands.

Valerie gasped, disgusted at the implication of sitting with those three. “I get it.” She huffed out angrily. She was about to leave when Paulina spoke up. “Hey Valerie. Did you at least sell your tickets to somebody cool? We don’t wanna have to sit next to any losers at the concert.”

Valerie was shocked. Were these the people she used to hang out with every day? The people who just last week were her best friends? They all laughed at her misfortune. She turned away from them, hanging her head in shame as she sulked off to sit at an empty table.

She wasn’t even really hungry anymore but at least she could still eat in peace.

“What do you want?” She hung her head even lower, not even bothering to look up when Foley rushed up to her.

“I uh...I was wondering if you wanted to join me - us - for lunch?” He stuttered out. “I mean since you’re…” He trailed off.

She didn’t give him a chance to keep going. ”I’m already aware of my sudden outcast status. But thanks for reminding me.” She was not in the mood for this.

“But-”

“Can you please just leave me alone? I want to enjoy my bag lunch in peace!” She shouted at him. She never got to eat.

* * *

Valerie had had enough of ghosts. That stupid ghost boy. That stupid ghost dog. Why couldn’t everything just leave her alone? And why couldn’t she just have her life back? 

But she wasn’t going to just sit around and do nothing, waiting for the moment she could resume her old life. Not like she wanted her two-faced friends back in her life anyway. No. She would take matters into her own hands.

So after school the next day she took the city bus to the Fenton’s side of town. Not a long ride, but it was hard to sit still when she was so restless. And since there wasn’t a stop right by their house she still had to walk a bit. Lugging her backpack got increasingly tiresome along the twenty minute walk. But she needed that bag if she was going to come home with weapons.

Once she got there, she knocked on the heavy wooden door littered with burn marks from ecto-guns, and backed up. It wasn’t long before someone answered. She thought it might be Maddie or Jack coming to answer, bearing guns far bigger from what regulations allowed if not for all the ghosts haunting the town. However it wasn’t. It was Jazz Fenton.

“Hello, Valerie!” Jazz said with a warm smile. “How can I help you?” 

She ushered Valerie in, gesturing for her to follow her as she stepped further inside the house. Valerie closed the door behind her as Jazz tacked on, “Danny isn’t home right now if you’re looking for him”.

“No, I was actually hoping to talk to your parents.” She told her as she sat herself and her bag down on the plush, blue couch with Jazz making herself comfortable on a similar looking blue chair across from her. It really was so much nicer than the seats back at her run-down apartment that came with raggedy old furniture. She’d have to change that once she could afford a better place for them to live. Maybe after the ghosts were taken care of and she could finally sleep soundly.

Jazz furrowed her brows in confusion. “What could you possibly want with them?”

“I uhh..” She trailed off. She didn’t know what she expected; to walk up and the Fentons to just give her their entire stock of weapons? Especially since her and Danny had barely talked before. They only knew each other in passing. Maybe a group project or two, but nothing more. It was a surprise Jazz even knew who she was, really. She’d only been here a couple of times.

She looked up as Jazz furrowed her brows, suspicious of her. “You...what?”

“I need to talk to them.” Valerie finally said after a long pause. “There have been ghost attacks and I want to know how to defend myself”. She wasn’t lying, technically. 

Jazz straightened her back and sat up. “Oh is that it? If you wanted to know that there are classes online you can take.” Valerie didn’t respond right away, unsure how to continue in the direction she wanted this conversation to go. However Jazz just sighed and hung her head. “But if you really want to learn from them, my parents are working downstairs.”

“I do.” Valerie nodded sharply.

Jazz stood up, pushing her hands on her knees, defeated. “Ok. I’ll go get them for you.” She started walking over to a staircase Valerie hadn’t noticed before. “Be warned, my mom is probably the best option for teaching. My dad can go off on tangents and you’ll never get home.” Jazz turned back and said before she disappeared down the metal staircase.

Valerie sat still on the couch, listening to the quiet conversation downstairs and anxiously twiddling her thumbs as she waited for an abnormal amount of time for someone - anyone - to come up here.

She winced when she heard an ungodly amount of crashing, slamming, and, finally, thunderous footsteps come up the stairs. It made her nervous, that much destruction happening in what she assumed to be a laboratory.

Before she knew it Jack Fenton stood a few feet above her. She never realized how tall he really was. Or how fast he was for being so big.

“So you want to learn how to hunt ghosts?” he laughed heartily. “Well boy do I have the weapon for you!” He ran back towards the kitchen, over to a huge ecto-gun she didn’t know was on the table before she sat down on the couch only a few minutes ago. Was that there the entire time? She swore it wasn’t. Maddie came up the stairs quietly before she could think to ask why Jack was suddenly entirely focused on fiddling with the large weapon that appeared out of nowhere.

Maddie smiled sweetly as she approached Valerie. “Don’t worry about him, dear. He’ll keep working on that as long as you don’t interrupt him.” She waved her hand dismissively in his direction. “You want to learn how to fight, right?” She gestured for Valerie to stand (and she did) as Maddie led them both to a more open area of the living room.

“I know several martial arts. Which one would you like? Or did you not have one in particular? Oh but I should get out the mat first, what am I thinking?” Maddie tried to go to a closet she also didn’t know was there, but Valerie grabbed her arm before she could get anything out. Valerie let go once she had turned back towards her and she had Maddie’s attention again.

“Actually I was hoping you could teach me how to wield the kinds of weapons you do.” Maddie was about to give her the same ‘you should let the professionals take care of it’ speech they already got from the principal two days ago so she kept going before she could be interrupted. “There have been some ghost attacks at school lately and I don’t want to feel so helpless when they come for us like they have been”.

Maddie smiled sweetly. “Oh is that all? I have just the thing for you. Wait here, please.” Maddie walked back down the stairs. Valerie turned and looked back at the kitchen table. Sure enough, Jack was still fiddling with the gun. It looked different than when she last saw it. He really was that fast with improvements, huh? It was interesting to watch at least, how he moved parts around with such delicacy for someone who is more of a heavy firepower and “shoot first” kind of guy.

“Ok, dear, here it is.” Maddie suddenly came up from behind her and Valerie held back the urge to jump. She held out what looked to be lipstick. Was this some kind of joke?

“I uhh...thank you?” She said as she grabbed it and turned it over in her hands. “It’s not really my shade, though.” Maddie just rolled her eyes.

“Here, uncap it and point it at that wall over there.” She did so, stuffing the cap in her pocket. “Good. Now, there should be a button on the side of the bottom portion.” She felt around. There really was a small button. “Take aim and press it.”

Once she did she watched as a small laser sprouted from the end where she previously thought there to be only cheap lipstick, and blasted the metal wall she was pointing at. “Woah” she exclaimed softly.

Maddie continued, “Now this won’t do much but stun a ghost; we’re still working on something compact that’ll work like a proper gun. But it’ll give you something against the ghosts if they come after you.”

Valerie was more than a bit disappointed that it won’t hurt ghosts like she wanted it to. That was the point of coming here after all. “I’m grateful you're giving this to me but do you have anything stronger?” she asked, smiling innocently. “Just in case.”

Maddie frowned a bit “I don’t think that’s a good idea. You shouldn’t be seeking out ghosts to hunt down if that is what you’re trying to do.”

“No no I’m not looking for trouble!” Valerie hurriedly said, shaking her head. “It’s just for safety.”

“If you’re worried about that I could give you our phone number and you could call us if you’re ever in danger.” Maddie looked about two seconds away from showing her out the door and leaving her with nothing. “And don’t worry about safety, we have everything under control.”

“I...ok.” She said, hanging her head solemnly, since she had no excuse to ask for more. “I’ll be sure to call if there’s any danger.” Like hell she would. She didn’t ask for their number either.

Maddie smiled again, no longer looking like she was about to throw her out for assuming they didn’t have it under control. “Glad I could help. And feel free to keep that lipstick ray. It won’t do much right now but if you come back in a few weeks we should have a better version in case you’re still interested.” Valerie dug the cap out from her pocket and snapped it back onto the lipstick.

Maddie looked up at the clock hanging in the kitchen and sighed softly. “For now though you best be going. It’s getting late.”

Valerie looked down at her watch. 5:48. Shoot, it really was late, she had to make dinner still, and the bus ride was going to take a while.

“Yeah I guess I should go.” She nabbed her bag from the couch she left it on, placed the lipstick in the side pocket, and swung it over her shoulder. “Goodbye Mrs. Fenton.” She paused. “And...tell Danny Valerie said ‘hi’ would you?”

Maddie nodded as she followed Valerie towards the exit. “I will. Have a nice night, Valerie.” Maddie closed the door once she was sure nothing would be caught when she shut it, leaving Valerie out on the steps with less than she was expecting, but still hopeful for the future.


	2. The First Trip

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Valerie takes matters into her own hands. It doesn't make the pitying look on adults faces any better, but at least she was beginning to feel stronger.

The next couple of days she felt a bit better about having some kind of weapon, not that she had the chance to use it in between studying, work, and more studying. But when the stupid ghost and his dog attacked a bastketball game and she wasn’t even there to do anything, she decided it wasn’t enough. She wanted to go hunting for these ghosts invading her town and her life.

The next day when she found Fenton slinking nervously around the empty hallways alone after school, she stopped him. 

“Hey Danny!” She called out and she saw him jump before letting the tension go and turning to face her, confused. 

“Hey Val, what’s up?” he asked, giving her a goofy smile that made her relax just a bit. He was always friendly, even if she didn’t give him the time of day before all this happened.

“I want to say sorry for the way I acted when all of the attacks first happened. You and your friends were only trying to help and I acted kinda mean.” She rubbed the back of her neck before she could stop herself. Apologizing to him was the last thing she thought she’d be doing weeks ago, but now that her head wasn’t in the clouds she realized that she really was no better than Paulina back then.

He relaxed his shoulders and spoke a bit more softly when he said, “Hey it’s ok, we all go through rough times.” He smiled sweetly at her. “I heard you came over to my house a few days ago. Sorry if I wasn’t home if you needed something from me.”

She clung to the books she was holding in her hands that wouldn’t fit in her bag. Right, she had told Mrs. Fenton to say hi for her. “Yeah, I asked if I could borrow an ecto-gun so that during all of these attacks I would have something to protect myself with.” She explained simply.

“Speaking of which, you don’t happen to have a weapon on you, do you?” She asked, hopefully. “Your parents only gave me something simple and I’m looking for a gun with a little more kick.” She pumped her fist in the air proudly. Danny would understand, surely. He was always running away from ghosts, so maybe she could teach him a thing or two once she learned. Help him fight them off with her if he wanted to.

But instead Danny tensed up when she said that. “I mean...Phantom is doing a pretty good job of taking care of it. So I don’t think you need to worry.” He said, left hand gripping the straps on his own bag tighter and giving her a half-baked smile.

She hated that he had the gall to smile all cute-like while saying that. “Are you kidding me?” He wasn’t there when Phantom destroyed the lab and he ran off right before Phantom trashed the moving van, but that was no excuse for defending that ghost. “He’s done nothing but hurt me and my family.”

Danny frowned, shifting his shoulders downwards and mumbling “He’s trying his best...”. His frown turned to a scowl. “But that dog. It’s just too much!” He huffed, exasperated. He jerkily looked back up at her, suddenly looking panicked. “Or so I’ve heard at least. Not like I’ve seen anything!” He laughed nervously and gripped his bag tighter.

She was about to comment but Danny suddenly gasped - she swore she saw his breath - and stepped a few feet back. “I have to go.” He then turned and ran off surprisingly fast for someone who’s failing gym. Strange, but he was always weird like that. She didn’t even get to say goodbye. “Whatever” she mumbled and turned back down the hallway towards the exit.

If she wasn’t going to get anything from Danny and she wasn’t going to get anything better than a souped-up flashlight from the resident ghost hunters then she’d find her own way to stop ghosts. She knew where to start, too. But it wasn’t going to be fun.

* * *

Just like a couple days ago she took a dirty city bus. Not to the Fenton's house this time, but to the city dump. Plenty of people, mostly the elderly to be honest, kept Fenton brand ecto-guns in their house. For safety. Or so they thought. They didn’t understand. They needed a real protector. Not that Phantom who plays around, shouting one-liners and messing up all the time. She could do better than him. That’s what she promised herself at least.

Some of the weapons had to have broken down. Regular citizens wouldn’t know how to fix it and no one wanted to go to the Fentons to get it fixed, not with Jack Fenton there to talk their ears off about ghosts. Even Maddie could go off of tirades about ghosts sometimes. So, like everything else broken down, it ends up in the dump. 

This dump wasn’t a nice one like the one a few towns away where people had to pay to take or leave junk. They did have someone watching the entrance to make sure no teens came here to cause trouble though. Not like that would have caused too much destruction considering this was basically just one large trash can, but still.

Lucky for her the under-paid, sleep-deprived man at the entrance was one of her dad’s old friends who was going through a tough time since the lab was wrecked and he also got laid off. A little shy smile and a “It’s been hard lately” and he let her through without even asking why she was here.

Rummaging through any kind of trash, even mechanical, was bound to come with some kind of inherent grossness to it. She wasn’t looking forward to it, especially after seeing several rats making themselves at home in the heaps of damp cardboard to her right.

But nevertheless she shook out her nerves and began to search for the pile of parts she knew would be around. Walking on the ground full of decomposed trash made a squelch noise she wasn’t expecting, but once she came across a slightly glowing mound she knew she hit the jackpot.

Shame she didn’t bring gloves, though. She scowled as she hesitantly shoved aside some old, broken coffee maker to reveal what she recognized as a small pile of broken ecto-weapons. Now grinning wildly, she threw out all hesitation and began to dig through it, hoping to find one still in good shape. She thought she had found something, and gripped it tightly, when she felt pressure on her hand.

“Ow!” she whispered when she nicked her hand on a sharp point deep in the wreckage. She pulled her hand out, along with a barely put-together gun, to see the damage. Her hand would be fine, she thought upon examining it hastily. Or at least it didn’t matter so much since she found what she was looking for. An ecto-gun, still mostly intact, too. She could tell it was missing quite a few parts, and she’d need to come back to try and find more, but here it was. Her ticket to getting even with that ghost.

She rested her bag on her foot, not wanting to get the sludge that was the ground on it, and set the gun gently on top of her books. She had faith that it wasn’t going to go off - it was missing its power source - but better safe than sorry.

She slung the bag over her shoulder, but was pulled back a bit when it turned out to be a bit heavier than she expected. None of the weapons she’d held before we like this. She could deal with it though; she was actually pretty strong.

However the thing she wasn’t quite ready to deal with was explaining to her dad why she was gone for three hours. He hadn’t called her, she checked while walking towards the entrance, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t notice. Or that he wouldn’t notice when she walked in the door at 7 pm when he knew she didn’t go to any clubs or do any sports after school.

She started forming an explanation in her head. She could say that she stopped to hang out at the mall with friends? No, she had already told him that she was having friend difficulties since their move. And he would notice her coming home without leftovers from wherever they had eaten. Curse her for having a good relationship with him. 

She passed the guard on her way out and waved goodbye. He pretended to not see her noticeably fuller bag and waved back. She was grateful he didn’t ask her why she was here.

Ok, so maybe she could tell her dad that she made new friends? It could work, he saw her with Danny and his friends during the move. And she knew she’d mentioned how nice Danny had been during the move to him. Yeah that was decently believable. So that’s what she told him when she got home.

And as far as she knew, he believed her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All comments are welcome!


	3. The Routine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her routine would be the same thing for quite a while. But it would pay off eventually. And it did.

Another grueling day of school passed and she went back again. It was embarrassing to see the look the guard who saw her just twenty-four hours ago gave her, but he still said nothing. She really needed to find another way in if this was going to be a regular thing. So instead of going straight to the pile she took a look around the perimeter, checking for any kind of back entrance. After a straight hour of looking she couldn’t find any, but she did find a part of the fence surrounding the area that was missing the barbed wire on top like on every other fence. 

If she could climb it, which she thought she could with how low it was comparatively to her, it was as good as a back entrance. But for now she was willing to cower under the pitying gaze of a tired adult in order to pass.

The good thing was that she, on her walk, ended up seeing a large container labeled “metal parts” in spray paint. This would be harder to access than a simple pile, but it might turn up better results. Climbing up the metal bin was easy; there was a small indent on the side that she could use as a foothold. The hard part was actually sorting through the parts. There were surely some worn down ecto weaponry, but finding them under the sheets of metal, electronics, and other miscellaneous appliances was challenging.

After another hour of sorting and grudgingly slowly shoving things aside with her foot as to avoid touching any sharp parts, she did hit the jackpot. Another gun similar enough to the last one to have some parts that she was missing. She kicked a ratty looking toaster out of the way and bent down to pick it up. Turning it over in her hands she noticed that some things she needed were either too worn down to use or missing entirely. The most valuable parts were probably already looted going by how most of the electronics in here were in the same state.

But it had the working power source holder she needed. Not the source itself, that was used up, but this was something she needed anyway. She could always come back.

And the next day she did. She tested the new entrance and found that, yes, it was easy to scale the fence with how low it was and how wide the grooves in it were. So that day, and the next, and the next were now dedicated to the same thing. Going there and hopefully searching for the things she needed for hours and hours.

Her after-school free time that used to be for trips to the mall, smoothies, and shopping were now used to scour the trash heaps of Elmerton. She wouldn’t have had to look at her report card to know that her grades were plummeting, but this would be worth it. Once she got off the ground some more she could worry about little things like getting an A on Lancer’s stupid English Essay again. Not that she’d skimp out on doing work. No she’d still be doing that. Had still been doing that, she reminded herself. She’d just skip out on other things. Like sleeping.

Once, just a few days ago, she fell asleep in Lancer’s class. He was pretty harsh on the boys. She’d seen what happened to Danny. He always looked so tired; She wished Lancer would give the poor guy a break.

But she’s fallen asleep like Danny had so many times. Lancer didn’t yell persay, but the look of disappointment was enough to make some of her old friend giggle at her expense. The pure humiliation was enough to keep her wide awake for the rest of class.

For the rest of class, however, was not the rest of the day. No, she spent her entire lunch break dozing in the bathroom. She wouldn’t be seen dead sleeping in the cafeteria with so many eyes not so subtly watching her. It was dirty and gross and every other disgusting word she could think of, but resting her head against the bathroom wall felt nice when she was so very tired.

And that was her routine for the next five days. Wake up at 6:00. Make breakfast for her and her dad. Go to school. Try not to fall asleep. Bring her lunch to the bathroom. Eat (sometimes). Take a nap. Go back to class. Try not to fall asleep again. Leave school. Go to the dump. Wander from bin to bin to find something she could use. Walk home. Eat dinner made by her dad. Do an hour of homework. Patch up her gun. Sleep. 

It was never enough sleep, she was always hungry, and she was constantly exhausted, but that was her routine and she stuck to it for a week straight. She planned to keep going, her health be damned, but she didn’t have to.

The next night was a hit. Searching through the same four or five piles several times could only produce so many new parts, but she was glad she stuck with it. The same toxic green glow she saw the first day of coming to the dump was a good sign. That doesn’t mean this hasn’t happened before; there have been a few times where she thought it was what she needed but turned out to be residue from a stray shot or leaking ectoplasm from a broken weapon that was unusable. Disappointed didn’t even begin to describe how she felt on those days.

It was a good thing she remembered to bring her dad’s work gloves that she “borrowed” this time around. Although she could see the glow leaking through a hole in the pile, actually getting to it would prove to be a struggle. She learned her lesson from the first time she hastily reached into a pile of parts and cut her hand. She was lucky it didn’t get infected. That would have been an embarrassing trip to the doctor.

Shoving her calloused hands into the thick leather gloves, she then plunged them into the area that she thought it was. She didn’t want to go too deep and cut her arm, which wasn’t covered, so she ended up pulling her hand out and kicking aside some metal appliances that were too heavy for her to lift with her hands.

But once she had shoved enough aside to be able to reach it, she eagerly did so. The second she got close to it she grinned from ear to ear. She felt the powerful flow of energy pour into her hand, even through the thick glove, before she had even touched it.

But once she got there the surge of power got stronger and she yanked the gun by the barrel so she could properly inspect it. Sure enough, the gun was in bad shape. The barrel was misaligned, the trigger was stuck in place, and the butt of the gun was badly dented. That didn’t matter, though. The green glow, much like a ghosts’ core, was bright. Not dim like leaking ectoplasmic goo from a used up source or faint like the lingering residue from a stray shot. She knew this was the real deal. The last thing she needed to make all of this worth it. A working power generator. And a good, full one at that.

She ended up running home. The cold wind passing across her face felt great, unlike the times when she’d tried running for fun.

She had actually come home early so avoiding her dad’s disappointing glare during dinner wasn’t an issue. Explaining why she was coming home late every night was never fun. She stuck with the “hanging out with Danny” excuse and he seemed to believe it. She knew Danny would take her side in an instance. She wished she could be that trusting of others. 

She waved to her neighbor, a little old lady named Mrs. Rifly, on the way in. 

Mrs. Rifly went to bed early in the evening, usually 6:00 pm, but Valerie came home earlier than she had for the past week. Mrs. Rifly had taken to staying up later and making sure Valerie got home safe for these past few days. Always a kind, if nosey, lady. But it still felt nice that someone was worried for her. Well, someone other than her dad. He has always been worried for “his little baby girl”. Hard to tell him that she was almost sixteen when he was always so nice to her as well.

“Welcome home, sweetie! I’ve just about finished making dinner!” Damon didn’t look up at the sound of her opening the door while he was stirring the boiling pot of pasta. Valerie tried to sneak away to have a nice, hot shower and wash away the stench of trash still lingering.

“Ok so I- good lord what is the stench?!” He said, holding his nose. “It smells terrible!” He finally turned to look at Valerie and saw her covered in dirt and grime. “Valerie what happened to you?” He rushed over to her, reaching out to check for injuries but stopped himself before he could get the filth on himself too.

“Some kids from school played a prank on me” she quickly lied. “They dumped some trash on me.” She shrugged her shoulders. “It’s not that big of a deal, I just need to shower.” 

She tried to push past him but he put himself in her path. “Valerie this kind of behavior isn’t ok. I should call the school and get these kids expelled.” He didn’t make a move towards the phone though.

They both stood there staring, willing the other to say or do something.

He gave in first though. “Sweetie, I'm worried. Don’t think I don’t know you’re sneaking out after school. If there’s something you need to tell me…something with that ‘Danny’ kid...” he trailed off and gestured for her to continue.

“Dad, it's not what you think. I just…” She sighed heavily and gripped her bag gently, hoping not to rustle the salvaged parts inside too much. “I just need some time to breathe after school. I go for walks sometimes. And Danny’s just a good friend, really. I didn’t mean to worry you, daddy.” She gave him a disarming smile, laughed a little bit, and put one foot towards her bedroom. “But I really do want to shower right now.”

He frowned, not quite sure what to think, but let her pass nonetheless. “Okay, dear...but we’re talking about this during dinner.”

She ignored his worried glance on her back and hurried as fast as she could to her room. After days of dumpster diving she finally had something good. It was hard to find the power source that powered the guns she needed considering that’s what was most often broken or worn out when tossed. Now that she had one she wasn’t going to let something unimportant like dinner get in the way.

She reached into her closet where she kept the makeshift gun and pulled it out gently. She had wanted to keep it in her backpack but without this final part it was useless. She grabbed the gun, her backpack, and the screwdriver she kept in her nightstand, and sat down on her bed.

This would take a while, she knew. Guns of any kind, even those that are held together with screws, were delicate. How Jack Fenton of all people managed to not break any was a mystery if the stories people tell about Danny and his family are any indication.

But laboring over this small piece of equipment had become normal and after just a few hours (maybe too many if the clock on her wall was correct when it said 1:38) here it was. A working gun. She couldn’t test it, not with her dad and others in this dingy apartment, but she knew in her heart this worked. It would work if it was the last thing she ever accomplished in her life, she would make sure of it.

She looked over the DIY gun one last time, turning it in all directions, looking for weak points. She couldn’t find any and smirked to herself, knowing she’d really done something great. She gripped the gun tight by the handle. One would never be enough. But after a long time of feeling helpless and stranded, no one on her side, she felt ready for anything.

**Author's Note:**

> All comments are welcome and appreciated!


End file.
